British Prime Minister Gordon Brown must have been a bit uncomfortable at a press conference yesterday in Brazil as part of a G20 summit, where the Brazilian president delivered a somewhat shocking one-liner about the financial crisis.

As Mr Brown looked on during a press conference, Mr Lula da Silva said that action was urgent since it would be intolerable for the poor — who were blameless for the collapse of financial markets — to suffer the most from its effects.

“This was a crisis that was fostered and boosted by the irrational behaviour of people who were white and blue-eyed, who before the crisis they looked like they knew everything about economics, but now have demonstrated they know nothing about economics,” he said, mocking the “gods of wisdom” who had had to be bailed out. “The part of humanity that is responsible should be the part that pays for the crisis,” he added.

His remarks threatened to overshadow the announcement of proposals for a £100 billion injection of finance to kick-start world trade. Mr Brown said that the expansion of credit was the minimum required as exports collapsed around the world.